


my mirror speaks

by eggosandxmen



Category: Mabel (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Father-Daughter Relationship, Neurodivergent Mabel Martin, Thomas (Mabel Podcast) Has Anxiety, Thomas Comes Back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29310801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggosandxmen/pseuds/eggosandxmen
Summary: a man that hides from all that binds / and a mess of fading lines.or: thomas finally gets to meet his daughter.title from death cab for cutie.
Relationships: Anna Limon & Thomas, Anna Limon/Mabel Martin, Mabel Martin & Thomas
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	my mirror speaks

The doorbell rings as Anna and Mabel are in the middle of a terrible-but-enjoyable horror movie marathon, which is the first sign of something conspiring against their happiness to occur in at least a day. A new record.

Mabel, who is quite comfortably half-asleep on Anna, makes a very disgruntled noise and sits up blearily. Anna, who had been throwing popcorn at the screen as the killer axe-murdered some Bland White Male Horror Actor, laughs.

“What?”

“You’ve got bedhead.” Anna’s smile softens a little. “This has been nice.”

“Yes. But now someone is here to bother us.” Mabel stands up and stretches in a way that would be incredibly concerning for any human being to do.

“Maybe it’s those neighborhood kids again,” Anna suggests as she stands up too, Mabel pulling on Anna’s hoodie and marching off to the front door, quite primed to scare the stupid teenagers who haven’t stopped ringing the bell, or to scream at the Folk for pulling a joke on their literal Kings, or to offer a warm place to hide in if it’s that less-stupid more-worrisome gaggle of children who keep trying to use the House to protect themselves.

It turns out to be none of these. Mabel blinks hard as their visitor starts to speak.

“I’m sorry about this, but I’m so lost,” says the man at the door, clad in a sheepskin jacket, staring at Mabel with blank eyes. “Can you give me directions back to—“

Mabel falls backward the second she feels Anna’s hands on her shoulders, letting the weight of her fall into Anna’s arms, her wife wrapping her arms around Mabel’s chest.

“Thomas,” Anna says sadly, “You’ve been here before. You remember.”

He blinks. “I— I need directions to get into town—“

“Please.”

He shakes his head like a bird, twitching to get water out of its feathers, and looks up at the two of them properly.

“Oh. Oh. Fuck.” He pulls out his pager on instinct, taps on it, smiles shakily. “Hey, Anna. Hi, I -- oh, Jesus, you’re--“

“Mabel Martin,” Mabel says, pressing herself closer to Anna. “And you are-- Thomas.”

“Yeah,” he says. “It okay if I sit down for a minute?”

He stumbles over to the porch step, puts his face in his hands for thirty seconds, and then stands back up.

“You’re my kid.”

“Yes.”

“And--” he turns to Anna, pointing at her, “I met you before.”

“Yeah.”

“And you two are ruling down below together?”

“That is what is happening, yes.” Anna’s eyes glow briefly and her crown appears before disappearing.

“Jesus. Okay.” Thomas rubs at his eyes, then squints at them both again. “You’re married?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you need permission for that?” He gives a real smile, this time. He’s joking. Anna raises an eyebrow.

“What,” she says, “I made you coffee and now you’re going to refuse to give me your child’s hand in marriage?”

“He couldn’t stop me if he tried,” Mabel said, turning to head back into the House. “We already did it. Nothing and no one can make us separate now.”

“You okay?” Anna asks before she goes in, and she smiles a little.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m going to make hot chocolate.”

“I want marshmallows, if you have an extra mug,” says Thomas absentmindedly, still at the porch step and staring at his own hands. 

Anna kisses Mabel quickly, whispering so her father doesn’t hear. “It’ll be fine. If you want him to go, he can.”

“No, I--” Mabel shakes her head back and forth a few times rapidly, a longstanding stim that Anna finally realizes mimics Thomas’ motions. “I think this could be. Good. For me.”

“I’m proud of you.”

The House makes a very angry barrage of noise when Mabel walks in, even as the wooden floor curves around her so her footprints are left marked in it like they’d be in snow. She flips it off and then turns to glare at a wall.

“Stop whining,” says Mabel, hands on her hips. “I know you’re possessive, but rowan, I have room in my life for more than one paternal figure. Or-- three. The girl in the mirror and you and his eternal kingdom-loser. Whatever.”

The House makes another loud noise.

“You already _know him._ He’s been _in here._ Just let me make hot chocolate for myself and my father.”

The vines above the kitchen sink wrap around her arms and she sighs. “You can threaten him if you like. Is this because you didn’t get to scream at Anna before we started dating, or do you just want something else to eat?”

The House makes a noncommittal shrug sort of noise as Mabel finishes filling the mugs. 

“Well, this is the first time I have ever genuinely gone and gotten drinks. Being a good host. First guest in a long time, I suppose.”

She spins back around the maze of rooms, somehow managing not to spill either hot chocolate and ending up back at the entrance door despite clearly walking towards the back of the House, and she gives it half a smile as thanks before marching back out the door.

Anna and Thomas are sitting down on the porch-steps, talking loudly and gesturing with their hands. 

“No way, like, a full on overthrowing-kings type thing?” Thomas asks, looking more like an absolutely pumped young man than a wanderer of the land of the dead.

“Yeah!” Anna pauses to flap her hands. “It was so goddamn cool, like-- a story, a whole big story. You-- you get it, you’ve been--”

“Yeah, but I never overthrew corrupt powers, nor did I become a god, so--” Thomas cuts himself off, accepting the mug from Mabel and chugging it while Mabel tucks her head onto Anna’s shoulder. “Anyway, holy shit, am I the King regent of Hell now?”

Anna goes back into her dork spiel on the history of Kings in the underworld, and Mabel just listens, occasionally vocally stimming and/or adjusting her position as Anna moves. And it’s-- nice. Thomas is a good storyteller, and Mabel finds herself chiming in more and more. When Anna ends up falling asleep a few hours later, Thomas grins at Mabel, running his hand through his hair and rocking his head just like she does. 

It’s quiet for a few minutes before Thomas takes a deep breath.

“I-- I. The cycle isn’t pulling me back.” He pauses, staring out down the hill. “I can remember-- my family. And-- you, I remember you. I didn’t get to see you when you were little, but-- Lily always-- we--”

“She was not a good mother,” Mabel sighs, pulling at a piece of her hair.

“I know. I’m sorry. I tried to come get you so many times, but they always turned me away, back out there. I’m--” He pauses again, looking genuinely sincere. Mabel would be confused if she wasn’t also feeling oddly soft feelings during this strange night. “Look, I just-- I’m really proud of you. You seem like a pretty great kid, and you made-- well, you made a good choice, overthrowing him, and finding Anna. I wish I could’ve--” He shakes his head. “No point in wishing. But-- yeah, I’m proud of you, Mabel.”

“Thank you,” Mabel says, the words feeling foreign but true on her tongue. 

He reaches over and pulls her into a hug without a word, and she accepts it (the first hug she’s gotten that wasn’t from Anna, Veratrine, Ekaterina, or Janet in… at least fifteen years. Hm.) after a moment, appreciating the fact that Thomas is apparently very good at hugging and does not mind the vines from her skin currently wrapping around him.

“Sorry, that’s-- can’t control those.”

“It’s alright,” he says, letting go. “‘S cool, honestly. Are those moon flowers?”

(Thomas, upon asking that question, watches as Mabel’s face lights up and mentally high-fives himself for guessing her hyperfixation right. Mabel, upon being asked that question, finds herself actually comfortable infodumping to someone who isn’t Anna for the first time since she was a kid.

The night goes well.)

**Author's Note:**

> mabel’s fixation being flowers 🤝 anna’s fixation being mythology 🤝 thomas’ fixations being music and stories
> 
> being gigantic dorks
> 
> anyway i love one (1) man and his name is thomas mabelpodcast and i just want him to meet his daughter and his daughter in law!! along with their adopted gaggle of chosen family !!! vera and luna and ekaterina and janet are all out being dorks during this but thomas visits more often and meets them all !!!


End file.
